Studland

With the weather being so nice during the last week, I though it a bit rude not to go for a sail.  Paul was also free today so we arranged to meet around midday and decide from there what we would do.   Studland and the Banks Arms beckoned so off we shot.  There was a good breeze as we left, I had considerer putting a reef in but it was manageable and there were no gusts.  

The harbour entrance was dotted with small fishing boats strategically placed to get in the way :)  I dropped the engine leg in and ran it on idle just in case I had to take avoiding action. One thing I noticed was the anti foul is definitely getting to the end of its life.  My rudder was streaming weed, probably picked up from Newtown Creek, and Lapwing was extremely slow. 

The Easterly wind was great for getting us to Studland but did make the bay a bit bouncy.  It took me three attempts to grab a buoy, and these buoys are easy to grab.   The obligatory Coracle race ensued, fortunately not resulting in us being dumped, unceremoniously on the beach.

We spent an hour or so in the Garden of the Banks Arms before returning to the boats.  My coracle seemed to have deflated slightly, must give it a good check over when it gets home.

 

The breeze had pretty well died by the late afternoon, we had a little wallow around for a while before starting the engines and motoring the whole way back to the moorings.

Another pleasent afternoon on the boat,  the end of season is rushing towards us so I will try to make the most of what is left :).    Maintenance wise, The battery has been gradually losing charge, as the solar panel is fubared, so that is now in my garage on charge, the coracle will need looking at and it's foot pump is just about ready for the bin.  I may even have to give her bum a quick scrub if I'm going to venture far before she comes out.

Southampton boat show

I was lucky enough to get some tickets for the boat show last week. I'd arranged to meet roger and Nick there as I. Had James with me.  We got there good and early and at 9:30 we were among the first to get in.
The main site doesn't open until 10, poor planning you may say... Fortunate says I. I've never been able to get out on the water at the show before but as we were early we had the pick of the trips. I plonked for a Jeanneau 30 as it is the size of boat that I could possibly aspire to and I wanted to see if James would enjoy it. Corr, not arf,  with just james,me and the two sailing school skips onboard we spent over an hour sailing around the harbour.  James was on the helm nearly the whole time and clearly enjoyed it... What a result.
Back at the show it was time to find a cash point.. wow, the thieving gits wanted to charge £2.50 per transaction, we decided to head outside and find a free machine. Poor planning paid dividends again as we took the opportunity to visit the Titanic.. not the ship but the free house, wherever had a pint. Of Titanic.. you could say it went down well.
We made our way back to the show and met up with Roger & Nick. It has the be said, the show seemed to feel as if it was down in both visitors and exhibitors.  A shames as it is so much better than the Docklands show.
Highlights for me, besides the sailing, were the Spirit boats, they are just beautiful and the Halberg Rassey.. top quality ocean going boats. 
The PBO project boat, Hantu Biru was also great to see,  lots of inspiration there.
Any way, back to the real world.. I'm trying to get some sleep before a 2am sail from Poole to Cowes.. should be great as the moon is really bright.

Fun in the harbour

I had a couple of impromptu trips out in the harbour recently.. The first was a solo sail around the islands.. always good for the soul.  I'd popped to the club to fill the safety boat fuel tanks and as the weather was sooo good and there were other people there just willing me to go out.. well how could I refuse.

I stopped at Pottery pier to have a brew and a nap before making my way back to the club.   What a way to spend a few hours.
Then a friend of mine wanted to come over and have a go on the boat.. well I couldn't say no could I?
We did a similar route, it's the best route to see the best of the harbour.  Richard brought along his new toy.. a GoPro digital camera.  It's pretty cool and the results are fabulous.  Thanks for letting me use the video Rich.

Long week end part two.

So... I managed to grab 45 minutes sleep in the club house before it was time to get out to Ciao Bella for the cruise to Weymouth. It was a glorious day, blue skies beautiful sunshine but barely a breath of wind. Corky the Catamaran was ready and waiting and Lapwing Paul had arrived at the club as I awoke from my slumber. Sails raised and the mooring dropped I sail past Escapade to say tatty bye and continued out towards the entrance. Despite the calm conditions Ciao Bella was making good progress.

Escapade 

Motorboats..  I started the engine, as is normal, to get through the entance and past the  chain ferry.  Unfortunately the breeze was dying again and the engine had to stay on.  Lapwing follow out and we pushed on to catch up with Corky.   With it being a bank holiday there was an excess of power boats heading out of Poole and coming across from the east.  Most were giving us room but some showed absolutely no regard and cut close at speed on both sides.  The wash from one of these eventually dunked Lapwings outboard causing it to fail off handfast point.  With no wind and a poorly motor lapwing had to limp into Swanage and pick up a mooring.
Corky continued onto Weymouth while I made the excuse of sticking with Lapwing.. in all honesty I was welcoming the chance for a nap and secretly hoped we'd be heading back to Poole :)

Refreshed.. I woke up and looked at my watch, 1 O'clock; I wondered if Paul had gone on without me.  No he was still there but I could see he was just putting his cowling back on.  I felt much better for having a couple of hours sleep.  After a bit more tinkering we were ready to go again.  With the delay we would have to motor but as there was little wind that was no bad thing.
We crashed through the Peveril race and took the inside passage past St Aldelms head into the calm waters beyond.

Weymouth was busy, We rafted up along side some bigger yachts outside the harbour masters office and readied ourselves for an evening out.  Unfortunately the harbour master didn't like where we were and push us out across the river to the Cove.  Having motored nearly all day our first job was to walk to the nearest petrol station and fill up some cans.  The nearest petrol station isn't that near when you are walking :)
Chores sorted, we made our way to the local Spoons for a no thrills dinner and some liquid refreshment.  Got to be said, it's a lively pub on a Saturday night.  By 10pm I was jiggered so made every excuse I could to return to Ciao Bella and get some sleep.

Homeward bound.  We left Weymouth around 9am, we knew that we wouldn't have enough easterly tide to get us home so we planned on stopping somewhere on the way.  Chapmans Pool was first choice but that would be a stretch.  In the end we decided on Warbarrow bay, we'd been there before and it's a lovely anchorage.

Lapwing heading East along the Jurassic coast

 Today was so much nicer than yesterday, breeze was good and the sea state calm, perfect conditions for a pair of small bilge keelers.  There was a bit of North in the wind which made us drift away from the shore, as the tide started to turn we had to start the motors and motor into Warbarrow.

Looking back along the Jurassic coast, Lulworth in the foreground

Warbarrow is a beautiful place to stop.  The beach is large pebbles and shelves steeply which means you can get in quite close to the shore... within swimming distance if you want, as we did last year.  Not this time though, we paddled ashore and took a stroll upto the Wartime ghost village of Tynham.

Lapwing and Ciao Bella anchored in Warbarrow Bay

Returning to the beach a chap came over to say hello, I'm terrible at recognising people but Steve (or should I say Sheila) eventually gave me the clues to who he was. We'd met up on a trip to Cowes a few years ago, Steve has a Fantasie 19 called Mudlark.  It's always nice to catch up with people, even if the recolection does take a while for it to sink in to my soggy grey matter.
Fast and Fun.. The return from Warbarrow was fast and fun.  The wind and swell built through the afternoon and we were rewarded with some great sailing.  We got back to our moorings as the sun went down.  A full weekend sailing, not without it's problems but always enjoyable.

The start of a looooooong weekend :)

Friday 28th August 2015 was the first day that I have been unemployed for approximately 25 years... and the first time ever that I have been voluntarily unemployed.  So how should I celebrate this occasion... by going for a sail of course. :)
A friend of mine has a Westerley Pageant which needed moving from Fareham to Poole.  Quite a long trip for a single day but with a strong inboard engine we should be ok.
Agent Orange (Name changed to protect the innocent) collected me early on friday and we made our way to the boat.   We loaded our stuff aboard and set about getting her ready. The keyswitch for the engine was not working and the replacement hadn't arrived in time so I stripped the old one down to see if we could fix it.  After some WD40 and a bit of luck it became operable again.The engine fired into life but wasn't pumping water.
Another 40 minutes and we'd sorted the air leaks on the raw water strainer and primed it.  The engine was now running well and pumping water nicely.  Time and tide wait for no man so we cast off and made our way towards the Spinnaker Tower.

The Pageant seems like nice boat,  plenty of room for a 24 footer and feels pretty solid. Out of the harbour and we decided to raise the sails.  Not a great start, the main didn't have the battens fitted and there was no kicking strap.  Also the Jib, which I'd unfurled earlier, was starting to pull out of the furler foil.  I rigged a temporary kicker and put a roll on the jib to stop it pulling out completely.  The solent was quite lumpy, a good force 4 with gusts and we were beating into it.  Still we where making good headway so we stopped the engine and enjoyed the sailing.

At the entrance to Southampton a Car Transporter was making its way out,  we were over by Calshot so decided to start the motor and get clear.  The engine started nicely but once again wasn't pumping. We stopped it and continued with the sail.. it was still too lively to be fiddling down in the bilges.
As the day moved on it was apparent that we would need the engine to get us through the tidal gate at Hurst.  I went down to address the raw water strainer again.  Even if it had a small air leak, was primed and running it would continue to pump so worth doing.  So strainer topped up and key in ignition, only to hear that soul destroying sound of a starter struggling with a flat battery.
I looked at the battery selector switch a realised it was a single switch.. ie One battery which we'd squandered on the chart plotter, depth guage, and other pointless instruments.  The parable of the midnight oil was edging it's way into my conscience. The engine looked like it had the facility for a cranking handle.. I wistfully asked Agent Orange where this fabled piece of equipment might be but he'd never seen it.  Many words entered my head.

We were past Beaulieu entrance but not as far as Newtown Creek doing tack after tack on almost exactly the same course over and over again.   The smart thing to do would have been to drop back into Cowes but I had commitments for the weekend so we took it in turns to sleep and sail back to Poole.
Gradually the tide came back our way and we made it through Hurst.  Over night the wind dropped to just a whisper making our progress painfully slow.  The sun was back up as we drifted in to Poole and the wind so light that we could not make headway towards the mooring.   Agent Orange suggested using the inflatable and 2hp motor to get us the last half mile.  Surprisingly it worked and a 7am... a mere 21 hours after leaving Fareham we were home.   Now all I needed to do was freshen up in time for a 9am departure to Weymouth on Ciao Bella!

Post holiday checks

After two weeks in the glorious Andalusian sunshine I thought of better go and check on Ciao Bella.  The first job was to bail out the  tender, which was 3/4 full of green crab soup, clearly there had been a drop or two of rain while we where away.
Then out to Ciao Bella. She was still afloat... Check and the engine was still attached... Check.
Onboard the cockpit scuppers had kept her dry, the bucket had about 8" of rain water in it. The bilges needed pumping out but that was just rain water.  I ran the engine for a bit so I could check the VHF and other electrics.  All good. I had a quick look at the solar panel, I just picked at the junction box and it fell off. It looks like it was never properly bonded on. The wires had crumbled, not good. Looks like it'll need replacing. So much for buying quality... The next one will be a fleabay special.

Some harbour bimbling

Since the channel crossing I've only been onboard a couple of times, both for bimbles around the harbour.
The Saturday after our return I needed to get out to Ciao Bella to sort some of the bits which inevitably  break, fall off or wear out.  I've already posted about the Autohelm but of utmost importance was to replace the coracle paddle which went for a swim of Shanklin beach.  Fortunately I had a spare paddle from a former inflatable.. its the wrong length but that was fixable with a hacksaw and some rivets.

The other items which were causing concern were the GPS, Solar panel and the coracle which was still clogged with sand from the Isle of Wight excursion.  All went well apart from the Solar panel.  The paddle cut down and worked nicely, the Coracle was paddled ashore on Brownsea to be washed out (Any excuse for a sail), the GPS came back to life after the connector pins were cleaned and the autohelm seems to work ok.
The solar panel on the other hand had succumbed to the marine environment.... very disappointing as I had specifically paid extra to get the best flexy panel that I could.  Three years service doesn't seem particularly good.  The tracks in the panel are turning black and furring up and when I checked the connection inside the cabin, the silver tinned conductors were also turning black and have gone brittle.

Anyway, the sail was lovely, I had no idea where I was going but ended up towards Hamworthy before turning back, I couldn't decide whether to go to Arne or Brownsea but the Island won in the end.  I had a little paddle ashore to clean the coracle then made my way back.

1st Aug - Wareham and back.

Having not been on Ciao Bella for what seemed a lifetime, Saturday seemed too good an opportunity to miss.  It's only been two weeks but what a couple of weeks. I have managed to persuade myself to hand my notice in without another job to go to.. it will be interesting to see how that develops :)

I wandered down to the club for about 8am, stopping for milk on the way... I couldn't contemplate sailing without a cuppa.  

Once again I wasn't sure where to go.. it looked like I'd be able to get to Wareham and stay for a while so I pointed the bow towards the RoRo terminal and motored away.  I had to moter as there was next no wind.  It's pretty dull motoring so I got the fishing line out, before I'd even let the line out fully I'd caught a Mackerel, this amazed me as I didn't think they came into the harbour, I don't know why I thought that; maybe they don't have the correct paperwork?
I caught the second just as I went past the RoRo terminal which was great timing as the wind was making a tentative appearance.   I put the rod away, stowed the catch and unfurled the Genoa.. The wind, as always, was coming from the exact direction that I wanted to go in.  The breeze was very light at first however there were occasional much heavier gusts which came from about 30 degrees off the steady breeze, causing Ciao Bella to race away in a better direction, but only briefly.
As I got up past Rockley park the breeze strengthened and was much more fun, although the direction meant it was still a bit of a tack fest, trying to pinch as much of the skinny water as possible to reduce the number of tacks.
In the confines of the river I furled the genoa and started the engine again.  Even though the speed limit is 4knots, which I was going, I had a constant stream of motor boats over taking in the river; one playing chicken with a boat coming towards us, then swerving infront of me, the wake causing Ciao Bella to lurch around, just glad I didn't end up with the keels in the mud.
Wareham Quay was packed, I rafted out five deep, much to the annoyance of the local motor boat tour guide.    I held on as I could see a space would be available soon on the next bit of the quay.
Next came one of my proudest maneuvering moments.   There was very little room between the bridge and the rafted out boats and I needed to get Ciao Bella in there.   I worked out that I could use the flow of the river and the breeze, which was blowing towards the quay, to help with the maneuver.

Just kicking the engine into forward and reverse occasionally let her drift gently onto the Rib which was along side the quay.  All done without fluster with a big crowd on hand to judge me if it all went wrong :)
I set about preparing my lunch, pan fried Mackerel in Olive Oil and Chilli flakes.. well it's all I had on board.  Jewels took a drive around and met me for lunch, She's not keen on fish so they were all mine,  supplemented by the lunch which Jewels had brought with her.

After a pleasant few hours it was time to head off again,  I had thought about staying overnight but didn't have my sleeping bag on-board and the forecast for night time temperature was in the single figures!
If getting into this space had been my proudest maneuvering moment, it was about to be usurped.  Leaving this space needed careful planning.  The rib which I had rafted up against had gone and I was now against the quay.  The river was flowing and the breeze was still pushing me against the quay.

  I let off the bow line and rigged the stern line from the starboard cleat, around the bollard on the quay to the port winch.  Now with the engine ticking over in forward gear, I let out some line from the starboard side to let me away from the boat behind, then shortened the port line which made the bow swing out towards the middle of the river.  As soon as I had clearance I released the spring line and motored away.. I felt almost profeshneal.
I ran back down the river under motor, raising the main as I went.  The tide was flowing quickly now and I didn't want to run aground up here.  The mudflats were clearly visible a the birds were gorging themselves on the rich picking now on offer.

I had a really good sail with the wind behind all the way back to the main harbour area, approaching the club I could see that even the Shrimpers near my mooring were heeled over on the sand,  rather than sit and wait for the tide, I went for a bit of a jolly.  At first down towards Sandbanks and then swung around back to the town quay before tacking off towards Brownsea. The wind had really picked up now,  I still had full sail up it was just a tad tippy.  With it being a spring tide the shallow areas were very shallow and I had to really keep to the channels.   This didn't help when I got between the islands, the water eventually ran out and I had to sit at the entrance to blood alley for 10 or 15mins.
Eventually I was afloat again and threading my way to the harbour entrance before turning towards the club.  In my daydream state I nearly didn't notice Dom and Sarah on a rib waving at me. Sorry guys :)
Back at the mooring and another perfect stop under sail to pick up the buoy. Long gone are the days of me desperately hanging onto the buoy as the boat swings back into wind, I'll have to find another exercise for upper body strength  :)